Promoting institutional change in post-Soviet Armenia: is social capital the ‘missing link’?

This paper argues that the social capital framework used by development agencies in community-driven development policies and projects is not adequate for analysing conditions affecting participation. Instead, it proposes a framework for analysing co-operation. The research in Armenia shows that the availability of social capital in a community may not necessarily translate into community participation. The governance environment plays a key role in affecting the nature and forms of community participation and in shaping local institutions in Armenia. This implies that development interventions that focus on building social capital as a means to institutionalise participation may not be effective without addressing broader structural factors affecting participation.